Chapter 3
“He’s just as handsome in his uniform as you are, platypus.”
“What? Tony, I don’t need to hear this!” Steve could hear Rhodes setting what sounded like dishes out on the counter in the kitchen.
“What’s wrong, Honey Bear? I’ll never love anyone as much as you, even if he does have the best arms I’ve ever seen.”
Steve continued his walking through Stark’s living area on the way to the kitchen. The expansive emptiness, where Stark made it obvious that the minimal furniture and decorations had been by choice instead of financial necessity, always made Steve uncomfortable in its haughty, magazine worthy splendor. The sparkling crystal and stone of his kitchen just made it worse as he rounded the corner to hear, “why couldn’t you have fixated on someone in the Air Force, man? I don’t care how pretty he is, he’s obviously not that bright, look at the branch he chose.”
Stark turned with his mouth open to return the teasing remark, that was frankly quite insulting to Steve who was proud of his Army career, when he saw Steve’s approach and instead said, “Hey Cap, what’re you doing here? I didn’t think I was expecting you here, in my home, without knocking, for any reason. JARVIS is there an emergency I wasn’t informed of?”
“No sir. When I attempted to ask Mr. Roger’s purpose in coming and declined to allow him in, he used his emergency access codes to bypass security.”
Steve was very annoyed that Stark asked a computer program, no matter how person-like he pretended it was, instead of just waiting for Steve to tell him why he was there. Obviously, it was important, or he wouldn’t have gone through the hassle of coming to find Stark.
“Okay, what’s the emergency Cap?”
“No emergency, Stark. I need to talk to you…”
“Wait a minute. You used the emergency access code I gave you,” Steve hated it when Stark interrupted him. Couldn’t Stark, just once, stop talking long enough for Steve to finish his instructions! “You know that code has to be re-set each time it’s used, and it’s only supposed to be used in an emergency. Not just when you need to talk to me.”
Steve was very disappointed in Stark’s behavior. Howard had been much more accommodating in providing the supplies and resources that Steve needed. Stark just didn’t seem to be as dedicated to doing good in the world as his father had been. Either that or he wasn’t nearly as intelligent as Howard, after all, all of Steve’s requisitions seemed to take a long time for Tony to design. Howard’s modifications to equipment didn’t take nearly as long, and Tony has a lot more resources than Howard had to make do with. Personally, Steve would believe it was both reasons, Howard had just been more dedicated and better at the job.
As Steve, once again, argued with Stark about how he needed permanent access to a quinjet. Telling Stark, or anyone else, where and when he was going somewhere was an unnecessary and unnecessarily time-consuming activity. And this ‘getting clearance’ from the FAA took much too long; he couldn’t even turn off the planes transponder and avoid the whole thing. Stark refused to listen and had set the stupid quinjet to not work if the transmitter was off. Steve lamented the fact that Howard had obviously been too soft on his son and had never taught him to respect his betters.